Gauteng CoGTA mourns death of Joburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo

Makhubo fires shots at ‘corrupt’ Mashaba over fleet contracts

The new mayor has accused his predecessor of gross mismanagement during his tenure, and suggested he has ammo to blow him out the water.

Gauteng CoGTA mourns death of Joburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo

With the advent of a new mayor in Johannesburg, so too mounds the fresh piling of dirt upon the man formerly at the helm. 

Johannesburg’s new mayor, Geoff Makhubo of the African National Congress (ANC), has suggested that he is ready to disclose information about former mayor Herman Mashaba in which it is clear that he tampered with forensic reports that directly implicated his government in corruption. 

One of these reports contained an investigation into a fleet contract in which it was alleged by AmaBhungane that then Democratic Alliance (DA) Mayor Mashaba’s coalition partners, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were involved in the deal to deliver the tender to fleet management company Afrirent. 

AmaBhungane reported in 2018 that the fleet service, which was successfully awarded the tender, had made dodgy payments to an alleged EFF slush fund, with acting head of the City’s fleet directorate, Sanjay Dubru, allegedly having interfered with the procurement process. 

Dubru has since been dismissed from the City’s new administration. 

New mayor sweeps clean? 

Makhubu suggested in February that Mashaba’s government had brought the city to the brink of collapse and created cultivated “an environment of maladministration bordering on fraud and corruption”. 

He said that Mashaba was integral to the whitewashing of the report that saw the city government cleared of all allegations of meddling with the procurement process for Afrirent. 

But he suggests that the reports should be reviewed.

With Mashaba having vacated his seat in November 2019, Makgubu now has the platform to point the finger at his frequent sparring partner. 

“Preliminary investigations have brought to light violations of the MFMA [Municpal Finance Management Act], SCM [supply chain management] processes and, as a result, the fleet contracts account for the high irregular expenditure in the city over the last two years.”

He said that the former administration had created serious financial headaches for his own government to deal with. 

“We are in trouble financially as a city as a result of the populist policies, and irresponsible and corrupt management of the city,” he said.

Mashaba responds 

Responding to the allegations, Mashaba said in a statement that he was prepared to take the new mayor to court in a bid to clear his name. 

“Consistent with my position that I was nowhere near this tender process, I do not seek to defend the supply chain processes of the City, Afrirent or Mahuna. The investigation report found problems in the City’s processes and I cannot account for the actions or associations of these companies,” Mashaba said in a statement.

“If there is further wrongdoing found, it must be investigated, preferably by law enforcement agencies whose jurisdiction is not limited, and the strongest form of action must be taken.”